New Prenda Law Shell Corp Threatening to Tell Your Neighbors You Pirated Porn

It appears that Prenda Law, freshly defeated, has formed a new shell company named the "Anti-Piracy Law Group," and has resumed sending threatening letters to supposed porn pirates. But this time, they've expanded their threats (from a letter (PDF) sent to Fight Copyright Trolls): "The list of possible suspects includes you, members of your household, your neighbors (if you maintain an open wi-fi connection) and anyone who might have visited your house. In the coming days we will contact these individuals to investigate whether they have any knowledge of the acts described in my client’s prior letter" Naturally, the letter also notes that the recipient can avoid having the list of videos they supposedly copied sent to their neighbors and family if they settle for a few thousand bucks...

Comments

Re:Haha, let them.

[MiKM]

Posted anonymously for obvious reasons.

I thought you said you weren't ashamed to admit that you watched porn.

Black mail

[Anonymous Coward]

This is black mail, and illegal.

=]

Re:Black mail

[Creepy]

Blackmail is criminal in the US, as is slander and defamation of character (and heck, I'm probably missing 100 similar charges for the country where using the internet is a felony by some interpretations of law). Even in the best case, this will scare people that don't know better than to pirate by proxy (anonymous proxies, coffee shops, etc), and even then, being nearly impossible to prove (without a search warrant and raid) will result in every single person involved suing them. This is going to backfire on them like a backward facing shotgun.

Re:Black mail

[mabhatter654]

I suppose they are counting on the recipient not going to the police over these letters. Part of Blackmail is that if youvwent to the police to defend yourself, you might get in trouble you don't want. As police don't enforce copyright law (like they don't enforce cheating on your wife) I don't think they would actually have to INVESTIGATE that you committed or didn't commit the act to enforce the attempt to extort money.

As these were certainly sent through the USPS it becomes a POSTAL crime as well. I guess the rest of the Prenda's team wanted to visit jail too. The problem with Blackmail is that you eventually send one of these to another, richer person in the middle of a messy divorce having a worse day than you... And they hire somebody to "deliver your payment". In a non-refundable manner. Makes a good episode of Castle.

Re:Black mail

[squiggleslash]

Wonder if the right response is "Dear Sir, I can confirm it was nobody in my household who downloaded the content in question. Feel free to investigate my neighbors. Be careful how you word your accusations when making your investigation as we will sue for libel if, as a result of your investigation, any of our neighbors are under the impression we were responsible for the download."

Re:Black mail

[Laxori666]

If a backward facing shotgun backfires, wouldn't you hit your target?

They Learned From SCO

[some old guy]

I'm sure they are perfectly aware that their claims are groundless and probably illegal. They're also aware that their lifespan is shrinking rapidly.

I think what they're doing is seeing how many poor schmucks they can scare into settling for a few quick bucks before the whole scheme implodes.

Clearly, SCO's "Linux Licensing" was a model modus operandi for trolls everywhere.

Re:Haha, let them.

[realityimpaired]

I'm not ashamed of my sexuality. I don't pirate porn, largely because the majority of it is fake and really poor quality (I'm not in the target audience), but let them tell my neighbours. They'll get hit with a defamation lawsuit pretty quickly.

And my neighbours have been able to wrap their heads around the fact that I'm a tree-hugging dirt-worshipping lesbian hippie who goes to festivals where witchcraft is practiced from time to time, I think they won't have any problem understanding that I may look at porn occasionally too.

Isn't this pretty much...

[Dachannien]

...the definition of extortion? For example:

http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?000+cod+18.2-59

http://codes.ohio.gov/orc/2905.11

http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/displaycode?section=pen&group=00001-01000&file=518-527

http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/875

Re:Isn't this pretty much...

[femtobyte]

However, remember that defamation must be false.

No, it doesn't, to be extortion (note the absence of any such qualification in the law you've quoted). Truth is a defense for slander/libel: if I want to publish in the newspaper that my neighbor watches goat porn, then I can avoid libel charges by proving it true. But if I ask my neighbor for money first to not publish their porn habits, then I'm extorting them --- independent of whether publishing would be slander/libel.

Re:Wow ...

[gstoddart]

They didn't say they were going to give your name out.

They certainly implied it since they're saying they will contact your friends and family and neighbors to see if they have any knowledge of this "alleged activity" (which they don't actually state anything about what is alleged).

So the threat certainly reads to me like they're suggesting they might be naming you in the process of saying "hey, do you know anything about this porn this guy is alleged to have downloaded".

From what I can see of that letter, it's thinly veiled threats, an extortion attempt, and no details at all on what is alleged to have been downloaded. I don't see how this is anything other than the same old illegal tactics which got them into so much trouble in the first place.

Re:They've shot themselves in the foot legally

[ShieldW0lf]

We should just do away with copyright already. From now on, the only way to get paid for porno is by the cameraman who offers you 500 euro while he's giving you a ride to your friend's house. He'll have no way to recoup, other than taking money from investors who convinced him to release the footage on Bittorrent.

Hot Legal Teens Fucking on a BMW. Brought to you by BMW.
 
Product placement would be an easy way to fund free porn. And really, how much more Pavlovian can you get than to have someone masturbate while looking at your product?

Re:When is the scum going in the slammer?

[dgatwood]

Right about now, I'm thinking. Up until now, everything they did was at least ostensibly legal, albeit unethical. This, however, is pretty much open and shut blackmail and extortion, both of which are federal crimes in the United States and nearly every other country in the world. In the U.S., a single letter like this is enough to qualify the sender for two separate federal charges with a maximum combined sentence of three years in federal prison, on top of various state and local charges that may also apply.